Pilsen: Chicago’s Most Colorful Neighborhood
When Chicago residents think of Pilsen, the first things that come to mind are often great Mexican restaurants and colorful street art. While Pilsen has indeed grown into a hub for Chicago’s Hispanic community, I was surprised to learn that this was only a recent development, dating back to the 1960s -70s. The first notable settlers in Pilsen were actually Czech immigrants, who arrived in Chicago starting in the 1850s. By 1895, 60,000 Czechs had moved into Pilsen, between 16th — 22nd Street and Halsted and Western Avenue (Spinney 138). WTTW Chicago writes that the neighborhood was named for the popular local Czech hangout At the City of Plzeň. Nowadays, Pilsen’s Czech roots can be seen through churches like St. Procopius on 18th and Allport, and Cermak Avenue, named for Czech mayor Anton Cermak.
The Hispanic community started coming to Pilsen in the 1950s (WTTW). These residents were not recent arrivals to Chicago, but rather Mexican families who were displaced from the Lower West Side due to urban renewal and the construction of UIC’s new campus. As more Hispanics arrived in Pilsen, they began taking leadership roles on neighborhood committees and establishing their own businesses and organizations. Importantly, they began to exert their political influence in the city, joining forces with African-American and Hispanic leaders from adjacent neighborhoods to fight Plan 21, a plan that proposed the redevelopment and essential gentrification of Pilsen in the late 70s (WTTW). The plan was never carried out as intended, and the residents were able to preserve the original character of the neighborhood. Thus, Pilsen earned its reputation for activism and political action, a common theme in the murals throughout the neighborhood. Today, Pilsen is more than 50% Hispanic, with 46% of residents reporting they speak Spanish at home (city-data.com). 30% of the population were born outside the US, showing a strong immigrant presence in the neighborhood (city-data.com).
Nimah, Gillian, and I arrived in Pilsen by bus from the Roosevelt Green Line station, taking the #18 bus west to the 18th St. Pink Line station. We began looking for street art as soon as we got off. All images of art and other landmarks in this post were taken by me unless otherwise credited. An untitled mosaic by the station entrance combined portraits and images from indigenous art to reflect the neighborhood’s culture. A depiction of Jesus’ mother Mary as the Virgin of Guadalupe was also a common motif I saw in art around Pilsen. A portrait of her hangs in my home parish, and the story behind it is familiar to me from Sunday school. The Virgin of Guadalupe is said to have appeared to Juan Diego, an indigenous man, asking him to build a church on Mexico’s Tepeyac Hill where he lived. He went to the bishop, who asked for a miracle to prove the lady’s identity. Diego returned to the hill to find roses blooming, although it was winter, and gathered them in his cloak. When he presented the flowers to the bishop, his cloak fell open, revealing an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe that had miraculously appeared on the cloth. Juan Diego’s cloak and its image have been preserved, and are on display today in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The image has since been reproduced countless times, becoming a significant cultural symbol in Mexico.
Across from the Pink Line, we found more murals at two community organizations: the Guadalupano Family Center (1814 S Paulina St) and The Resurrection Project (TRP) next door to it. According to the organization’s website, the Guadalupano Family Center is a free preschool run by Chicago Commons, which focuses on serving disadvantaged families. This complements the services offered by the TRP. Its LinkedIn states that the organization was founded in 1990 by six nearby Catholic parishes to build community in Pilsen and provide education and counseling to its residents. Again, the murals mixed modern and indigenous motifs. There were indigenous animals on one wall, reminiscent of Aztec and Mayan animal motifs. On The Resurrection Project’s building, a nighttime cityscape was painted. There were also portraits of a dancer and yet another depiction of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Even the bollards were decorated, painted to look like faces.
In addition to depicting Pilsen’s history and everyday life, the murals are used as a form of neighborhood activism. One mural was a Declaration of Immigration (1413 W 18th St), painted by the Yollocalli Arts Reach, a youth program run by the National Museum of Mexican Art. Dating back to 2009, it is a “visual dedication to all immigrants and families who have stood strong in the face of anti-immigrant rhetoric” (Yollocalli Arts Reach). “We are a nation of immigrants”, the declaration begins, and decries the separation of undocumented families that enter the US and the construction of a border wall. While painted ten years ago under a different president, slogans from this mural are still seen on signs and banners today at immigration rallies today. I wonder if this mural originated some of them.
Another Yollocalli mural called Reach for Peace (544 W. 18th Street) depicts “solidarity in Pilsen and surrounding communities” (Yollocalli Arts Reach). I appreciate the symbolism in the mural: in the center, a handshake, overlaid on top of a peace symbol, serves as a bridge where two people, one dressed in blue and the other in yellow, walk towards each other. The different communities they come from are represented by the traditional brownstone houses seen in Pilsen, the other a modern midrise building. The motif of handshakes and hand-holding is repeated throughout as a symbol of unity and solidarity.
A mosaic at 18th and Paulina was inspired by teenager Jeff Maldonado Jr., an aspiring artist who was tragically shot the day after his nineteenth birthday. WTTW Chicago interviewed his father Jeff Maldonado Sr., an artist who began the J-Def Peace Project in honor of his son. The organization seeks to end violence among Chicago teens by helping them “create public works of art which spread the messages of peace, education, and hope”, including this mosaic (text from the mosaic itself). The mosaic includes a portrait of Maldonado Jr. and spurs onlookers to action with slogans like “guns down”, “paz” (Spanish for “peace”), and “neighbors”. While activism is a common theme in street art, the symbolism I saw in Pilsen’s murals is more clear and consistent to me than in other murals I’ve seen around town.
I was also able to learn something new about Mexican culture through the murals. Many of the doors in Pilsen are painted to look like a type of playing card. Upon further research, I learned that these cards are for a game called “la lotería”, or “the lottery” in English. The game is played much like bingo, where each player receives a board with a random selection of the cards. Each time a card is drawn from the deck that matches one on their board, they place a marker on it. The first player to complete a row, diagonal, or some other predefined pattern wins the game. These cards were scattered throughout Pilsen, and I made a game out of seeing how many I could find.
We continued walking down 18th St., noting the buildings and businesses we passed. As people are getting ready for Halloween, the residents of Pilsen are preparing for El Día de los Muertos. As I learned in my high school Spanish class, this Mexican holiday falls on November 1 every year, and is a time for people to pay respect to their ancestors. Families often set up an altar at home decorated with photos of deceased loved ones, food, flowers, and skull motifs. They will also visit the cemetery and have a picnic there. I realized it is very similar to the Chinese festival of Tomb Sweeping Day, where families clean up their relatives’ gravesites and bring the favorite foods of the deceased to “share” with them. Many of the store displays were decorated brightly with flowers, skulls, and figurines in preparation for El Día de los Muertos. Most of the storefronts in Pilsen were decorated for this holiday, especially florists and restaurants. Skulls, flowers, paper cuttings (papel picado), and candles are commonly featured, and are rich in symbolism. According to SBS Spanish, an Australian Spanish-language broadcaster, the scent of the flowers helps guide the spirits home, and candles represent light and hope. The colors of the paper cuttings also have meaning — orange means mourning, yellow is used for the elderly, and red is used for warriors.
Pilsen’s businesses are mostly independently-run, neighborhood businesses, with few chain stores. I saw florists, a cobbler’s shop, secondhand stores, a minimart, and a barber. There were also numerous restaurants, ranging from fancy steakhouses to cafes. The entrance to the Pilsen Law Center (1545 W 18th St) has a beautiful wrought-iron gate and sign above its entrance reading “Bienvenidos a Pilsen”, in keeping with the neighborhood’s character. We visited one store in particular, Pilsen Vintage (1430 W 18th St). The first thing I noticed when we entered was the smell of sweet incense, a clever way to mask the musty smell that often accompanies vintage stores. The store had a nicely curated collection of vintage clothing, jewelry, and old records. We spoke to the owner for a bit, who was accompanied behind the counter by her two dogs. She said the neighborhood has been gentrifying over time, and a lot of new people are moving in. Since she lives in Pilsen, she noted that there was a definite divide between the people who she saw in the area over the course of the week. Tourists and visitors from other parts of Chicago come on the weekends, while the weekdays show “who’s really living here”.
We stopped at Cafe Jumping Bean (1439 W 18th St), but decided against getting anything as the line was so long. I first assumed that the coffee shop was a sign of gentrification, since the sudden appearance of high-end coffee shops is often a visible marker of a gentrifying neighborhood. But Cafe Jumping Bean is actually a neighborhood institution frequented by Pilsen artists. The South Side Weekly writes that it was opened more than twenty years ago by Eleazar Delgado, a long-time Pilsen resident who noticed Pilsen didn’t yet have a place for good coffee. Prices are accessible, meaning more people can enjoy the coffee — an iced latte that might cost over $4 in another neighborhood is $3 here. I had similarly assumed that Cantón Regio, the fancy steakhouse mentioned earlier, was another gentrifier due to its modern look. Its Yelp page actually says that the restaurant has been owned by the Gutiérrez family since 1962, re-opening recently as Cantón Regio. Reviewers rave about the delicious food and good value, noting that it’s cash-only, which is common in neighborhood restaurants that want to keep costs down.
It might be that the gentrification mentioned by the owner of Pilsen Vintage is more visible in other parts of the neighborhood, which we did not see. Kathryn Saclarides writes that gentrification brings benefits such as “enhanced municipal services, new businesses, safer streets, and greater political clout” (Saclarides). Gentrification becomes a bad thing when it pushes out the people and ethnic groups who made the neighborhood what it is, in city efforts to sell its culture to consumers. Indeed, the city wants to emphasize the “Mexican-ness” of Pilsen as it might the “Chinese-ness” of Chinatown to attract visitors. It encourages and advertises the growth of the art scene, ethnic shops, and ethnic restaurants that are all mentioned here. Even the pavement has been decorated with Aztec motifs. At the same time, the local community seems to retain a lot of agency in the neighborhood, at least along 18th Street. Organizations like The Resurrection Project and J-Def Peace Project were started by and serve Pilsen residents. Saclarides notes that home prices and rent in Pilsen overall have increased dramatically since the 1990s, and aldermen have tried to promote high-density housing that would increase nearby property taxes (Saclarides). Perhaps these negative effects of gentrification would be more obvious in a residential part of Pilsen.
Of course, we had to try some of the food before leaving Pilsen, opting to take things back to campus. We decided to stop at Taqueria Los Comales. I went to this restaurant with a student org for dinner before, but I hadn’t noticed the blue mural covering its facade then. The restaurant was full of middle school-aged children, who we learned were in Pilsen for a field trip. I ordered a steak burrito, since I had the tacos last time. The burrito was delicious — it had a lot of steak, and even some guacamole, which other restaurants often charge extra for. We also stopped by the Xurro stand at the 18th St. Pink Line station. It was cloudy and cold outside, so I opted for the “abuelita hot chocolate”. It was some of the best hot chocolate I’ve had — smooth and rich, with a hint of spice.
I really appreciated the chance to visit Pilsen for this course. It’s a bit out of the way compared to downtown or Chinatown, so I don’t go there very much. A lot of my classmates in architecture talk about the great street art in Pilsen, and I was glad to finally see some of it for myself. I didn’t get to see as much as I wanted to see, since the trip there took a long time and I had to get back to campus in time for a meeting. Next time my family comes to town, I’ll definitely take them to Pilsen so they can experience it too.
Sources:
“60608 Zip Code (Chicago, IL) Detailed Profile.” city-data.com. http://www.city-data.com/zips/60608.html.
“Canton Regio — Pilsen — Chicago, IL.” Yelp, October 17, 2019. https://www.yelp.com/biz/canton-regio-chicago-4.
“Early Education.” Chicago Commons. https://www.chicagocommons.org/programs/early-preschool-education/.
“Murals.” Yollocalli Arts Reach. http://yollocalli.org/murals.
Pupovac, Jessica. “History of Pilsen.” WTTW Chicago, March 26, 2018. https://interactive.wttw.com/my-neighborhood/pilsen/history.
Pupovac, Jessica. “Jeff Maldonado.” WTTW Chicago, March 26, 2018. https://interactive.wttw.com/my-neighborhood/pilsen/jeff-maldonado.
Saclarides, Kathryn. “Selling Chicago as a Global City: Redevelopment and Ethnic Neighborhoods.” The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, 2009. http://ssa.uchicago.edu/selling-chicago-global-city-redevelopment-and-ethnic-neighborhoods.
Spinney, Robert G. City of Big Shoulders: A History of Chicago. Northern Illinois University Press, 2000.
“Mexico’s Day of the Dead: What Do All the Symbols Mean?” SBS Your Language, November 2, 2018. https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/mexico-s-day-of-the-dead-what-do-all-the-symbols-mean.
